Report of the State Department of the United States of America on the state of human rights in Montenegro in 2013 includes findings from our three research projects.
The above mentioned report indicates to insufficiently functional parliamentary oversight of the Security and Defense Sector, failure to implement the Plan for Parliamentary Oversight, as well as significant delays in the examination of annual performance reports of the state authorities, namely, the Police Administration and the National Security Agency. We have pointed out to these issues in our Monitoring report on the implementation of the Law on Parliamentary Oversight in the field of Security and Defense.
The Report provides an insight into many doubts of the opposition parties members, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, diplomatic missions, etc, on possible misuse of secret surveillance measures (SSM) in Montenegro, recalling upon findings of Institute Alternative about inappropriate oversight of the SSM application by the National Security Agency and the Police Administration in criminal procedures. Inappropriate oversight of the SSM application resulted in unlawful application of measures, as well as the situation in which these institutions do not report on measures they applied (number of individuals, internet addresses, etc.). You can read more about this issue in our Analysis on SSM.
The application of the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees was also the subject of this Report. It is noted that Institute Alternative has pointed out to the inadequate implementation of the new Law which aimed at reducing political influence on employment in state institutions and nepotism in the public administration. Also, the majority of the state authorities did not fulfill the obligation to disclose information on employees on their websites. In order to find out more about our findings on recruitment and promotion in state authorities, see our Semi-annual report on implementation of the Law.
Commenting on the Report in the daily newspaper “Dan”, Research Coordinator at Institute Alternative, Jovana Marović, said that the attacks on the Government critics and the atmosphere of intimidation represent features of everyday life in Montenegro. In such circumstances, it is often difficult to insist on a constructive dialogue between civil society and state authorities. “Proof of civil sector being driver of change is the U.S. State Department Report, which used the analyses of NGO sector, among others findings of Institute Alternative from research projects on parliamentary oversight of the security sector, and employment in public administration”, said Marović. (Read the entire article “Intimidation as a Lifestyle”).
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